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Alex Salmond has timed the independence referendum to coincide with the 700th anniversary of Robert the Bruce’s triumph over the mighty army of Edward II of EnglandHulton Archive/Getty Images

Mike Wade

Last updated at 12:01AM, January 8 2013

If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, Bannockburn,
it seems,was decided close to the old football pitch of Milton, a village on
the outskirts of Stirling.

It was here that Dr Richard Tipping, an expert in pollen analysis, yesterday
initiated the environmental reconstruction of Scotland’s most famous battle.

Over the next eight months, with the help of a small platoon of specialists,
he will analyse thousands of soil samples, from Milton and 40 significant
places around the battleground to reveal the truth about the most famous of
Scottish military victories.